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thedaisycrownwitch · 4 years ago

Text

Genre: Fluff

Characters: Varric Tethras, Pinja Tuva (OC)

Pairings: implied; Varric x OC

Warnings: none

Words: 3.289

Inspired by:

that feeling you have late night, when you imagine something in your head so well, it gives you goosebumps

that feeling the first minute of "Bitter Sweet Symphony" by The Verve gives you, when you listen to it in the dark (last paragraph only)

Disclaimer

This is more experimental at places then what I usually write, so I hope that doesn't cause too much confusion.

Also, this was kind of a late night, 2 am random rambling, so if it gives of those vibes, its because, it was.

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He leaned back against the wooden planks, as he watched her shooting with the crossbow. His arms loosely crossed in front of his chest, while he nodded softly in approval. The recoil was still throwing her back a little with every shoot, but she was getting better. She was a clever girl, it wouldn't take long for her to understand how this all worked. Of course he wouldn't give Bianca to her, she was his treaure, but giving Pinja some practise on such a weapon as her, would do her some good, Varric thought. Maybe the girl could get her own crossbow in time, when she was good enough? Yes, Varric would like that a lot. Mostly because he liked the way she handled Bianca.

She had been hesitent at first when he offered Bianca to her, to try her out, since she knew the crossbow meant a lot to Varric and he wouldn't let anyone else touch it unsupervised. But he had insured her that it was fine. "She had worse." He had chuckled, before showing her how to hold his weapon. Maybe she only remembered it because of that. Cause it caused quite a rush in her, to feel his chest against her back, when he positioned her hands and slid his leg between hers to position them right. Pinja was hopelessly crushing on the author, and the more he interacted with her, the more hopeless she became in her desire.

He moved his glance away from her shooting Bianca, looking over into the distant mountains. There was something about this girl, this small town dwarfen girl, that was different. He wouldn't let anyone else touch his Bianca, yet somehow, he was fine with letting her shoot it, sometimes for hours, and even when he was not actively checking on her. He found himself lost in thought more and more often, not of boredom, but of relaxation. Bianca was in good hands. Soft and small ones, but gentle and careful with the trigger and wooden frame of her construction. Truth be told, he couldn't have asked for a better fit for Biancas second user.

Pinja placed the crossbow upon the table, before she went over, to get the arrows she shot, back. There were no bulls eye in her shots, but it was progress that she hit all into the target, and not the wall behind it. Bianca packed quite a punch, more then she was used to from her bows.

She pulled the arrows out of the straw, before returning to the table, Varric already waiting for her. "I'm gettin' the feeling you're improving quite a bit." He greeted her back, and she was very sure she heard a bit of pride in his words. "I hope so. Would be a shame if you sacrificed your and Biancas time for nothing." She joked, placing the arrows on the wood, before looking up to the other dwarf. He smiled at her. She hated when he did that. It made the fluttering inside of her only worse.

He couldn't hide his pride, and he honestly felt pride when he looked at her. She joined the Inquisition not too long ago, and seems to get used to this new way of life quite fast. Scout Harding helped as well, of course, but strangely, Varric found himself in Pinjas company quite often, and if it even if it was just sitting side by side, either doing their own thing. It was...strangely calming, he would describe it. And right now, it was the best it had ever been, at least from his perspective.

Pinja set down on the opposite side of the table, crossing her arms and placing her head upon it. Eventho she was quite average for a dwarf, human tables were still a little high for her in most cases. But that was fine, just meant more place to rest her head. Just relax and watched Varric, who tended back to something he wrote. She liked to watch him work. The way his feather scratched the paper, and how he licked his lips, when he was thinking over a particular part, where the wording wasn't to his liking yet. How this tounge would feel against hers, she sometimes wondered. She might never know. That thought made her sad, so she didn't think about it to often.

Varric was tipping the end of his quill on the wood, thinking over what he just wrote, or at least pretended. This was just an unimportant letter. The wording didn't really require any change. But thats not what he was after. He watched her. Watched her watch him. He knew she did, eventho she tried to hide it. She wasn't good at hiding it, in fact. He saw her eyes following the turning of the feather between his fingers, and tensed when he wet his dry lips. He saw how her lips parted for a few moments, showing a little bit of her teeth, before her tounge darted out just a little to wet her upper lip, but she wiped the wetness away with her hand close to her face a matter of seconds later. She was nervous, or lost in thought when she wet them, only realizing later what she did. It was weird. Her nervousness, he couldn't explain it. Well, he could, but he didn't want to explain it to himself in any of the ways he could think of.

She quickly turned her head away, when she noticed that he watched her, turning her look towards the courtyard. She shouldn't look at him like this, imagining these things. No matter how fuzzy they made her feel, and wet her mouth in anticipation. It was so temping...to imagine how he embraced her, his hands sneaking down her sides, uniting in her front, while he pressed himself against her back. His warm breath getting caught in her nape, as he rasped soft words against her skin, which as much meaning and deliberation like in his stories. Or how he would take her away from the other, taking her here, then behind he shed. Gently trapping her between the wooden wall and his body, not letting her escape... He heart started pumping, her breath was getting heavier, just at the thought. A soft layer of goosebumps covered her skin, while her mind got lost in the haze of this moment, that would never happen, yet was so real in her own head.

Did he want to ask what was wrong? No, not really. Not that he didn't care, he cared a great deal about her being well, but he was probably reading too much into this. He did that all the time, making up stories, he was a writer, Makers Breath, but maybe it was too much sometimes. She was fine. If something was wrong... He hesitated. She didn't want to bother people. Maybe there was something... He kept writing, but only with half his consciousness, as if to allude that everything was fine. Meanwhile he tried to read her again. She had barely spoken to him, not unusual, they spend a lot of time not exchanged a single world, yet she wasn't relaxed, not like he used to see her relaxed at least. He could see her breath, oddly heavy...her eyes were closed, did she nap away? No, she was too tense to be asleep.

His hands resting on her sides, as he stepped closer, pressing one leg between hers, softly forcing them apart. His breath on her lips, the smooth, dark velvet of his voics lingering in the air. Maker, she wanted it, she wanted it so bad! It was frustrating...so frustrating it made her want to cry in anger and helplessness. Why her, why him, why this? Was is possible to desire someone so much you felt it? In your body, in your heart, in your own head? She was so desperate, it shouldn't be possible to feel this much desperation. And yet...doing it? Actually physically doing it? No. Even more unthinkable. How would he react? Probably disgusted, appalled. Pushing her away, telling her what she already suspected...

"Pinja?" She looked over when she heard her name. Varric put his quill aside, having decided to focus fully on her. "Are you alright?" He then asked, letting worry spill into his words. A unfair move, as he knew, she would be compelled to answer, knowing he was worried, yet a technique he employed to get an answer at all. She set up quickly and nodded. "I'm fine, just...a little tired..." she replied, her word trailing off, as she looked down onto her hand on the table. He kept silent. There was more, they both knew it, just what exactly wasn't clear for him. "It frustrates me that I haven't mastered Biancas aim yet." She then added. Ah. So that what he saw in her. Frustration. Yes, he could understand that.

It was not even a half truth. Yes, she was a little sour over her unability to man Bianca, but she only started to try her out a few weeks ago, it would take more time. She knew that. So she lied. So he would be at ease. She didn't want him worrying about her. She didn't want him to worry, it stung her heart. Maybe...maybe leaving him alone would be best. These feelings, she had, they were not the kind you dealt with in front of the person you had them for. She should go, she felt like. "Don't worry, you'll get the hang of it." The dwarf comforted her with a smile, while she got up, her heart thumping in her chest to heavily, she could swear he would see it. "Thanks." She said simply, as she gathered her things, mostly loose paper, and some charcoal from the sketches she made. Many of then attempts to draw a portrait of him, yet failed in the simplest stages and given up on, doomed to become food to the fire later.

He set up straight as he watched her get up and gather her things. Did he say something wrong? Not that he could recall. Her urgency was a little alarming. Usually she stayed with him till he went to bed, but not today. She seemed off in general, he had noticed. It wouldn't be unusual to be insensitive about a matter, but his insensitivity was with method, not just random. What could have tipped her off, they barely talked. Maybe it was that? Suddenly he felt guilt over what he said, or rather didn't say, in this case. Softly he laid his feather down upon the table, rising from his seat. "Wait, please." The dwarf asked, kindly, a tone not often heard from him. He watched her stop, the leather with her sketched clutched onto her side. "Listen...if something is wrong, you can always talk to me, alright? I'll listen...and no, it doesn't matter if it a stupid thing." He interrupted her, as he saw how she took breath to answer him.

Why would he say such a thing? It wasn't that she didn't appreciate the offer, quite on the contrary, she'd love to just pour her heart out to him, but what would he say if he saw the pieces of the puzzle, and put them together. The picture he'd see...it would destroy what they had now, undoubtedly. She didn't want to loose this. It made her heart cramp, but at least she could be close to him in this way. But he wanted an answer. He had seen right through her, that she wasn't fine. Letting him leave with no response at all...he would question it. Pinja turned back, straighting up her shoulders a little. "Its...this whole thing." She then said, as she set back down on the edge of the bench. "First the conclave, then Haven and now this, this...archdemon mage...thing..." She sighed and took a deep shaky breath, before she looked up to him. "I don't know how you can take all that so well." Nothing of this was a lie. It was a deep concern, she pushed aside to not curl up in a ball and be scared for her life, never leaving her room. Her words rewarded her with Varrics soft look, or his equivalent of it. It still had this light sparkle or sarcasm in it, but most of it was warmth, a warmth that she felt pouring in her chest just this moment.

There it was. He knew that she was hiding something from him. There was no hiding from Varric, he knew people, and he knew her. And honestly, he could understand. He himself? An adventurer, a writer, friend of the champion of Kirkwall. This was like every other day to him, just another apocalypse in a line of catastrophes. But to her, a small town girl? This must really feel like the end of the world...which it was, quite frankly, but in another way then it was to him. "I understand that...honestly, if I could, I'd be outta here before you could say 'Andraste's Ass', but I wanna help. And Marker, I am scared, trust me, you're not alone in that. Everyone here is. If they weren't, they'd be more stupid then a Nug running into a wolves den." He said, a light smirk playing with his lips, while he looked at her. "So...you don't think I'm a baby for being scared...?" She asked quietly, giving him a look, that, he could swear, wanted him to just aww right into her face. She was so genuinely innocent in her thoughts...it was almost too pure.

She waited for an answer, nervously, playing with the leather strap, holding her drawings together. Maybe she shouldn't have asked, it was a stupid question, but there was no taking back now, unfortunately. But instead of slipping into a roaring laughter over her idiocity, Varric gave a soft chuckle, opening up his arms in an inviting manner. "Come here." The writer commanded her softly. Pinja however hesitated upon the offer. Was he actually serious? He must be messing with her. Varric Tethras offering her a hug? His must be a dream, something of her imagination, he would never... "Come on, before I change my mind." He chuckled, lightly making an inviting movement with his fingers. She got up, swallowing hard, and stepped over to him, carefully wrapping her arms around him, placing her head onto his shoudler, so he couldn't see her face. Then she froze.

He almost rolled his eyes at her hesitation. Was she thinking he was gonna bite? Tell around that he gave her a hug? No, he had a reputation to keep, yet, he wanted to take some of that burden off her, just for the moment. He felt like she needed it. His arms lightly wrapped around her waist, holding her softly against him. "There we go...that wasn't to hard, was it..." he chuckled softly, unable to hold back.

This was it. He was here. They were here. Standing here, hugging each other. It was actually real. And she was just frozen in the moment. Her heart was baging against her ribs, like it tried to break out of her chest. She felt lighthearted, while a fuzzyness took over her inside, a tingly sensation rising from her stomach up into her chest. Yet...her lower jaw send a shockwave of pain through her skull, her eyes feeling tense. No...this... She tried to breath in, the bit of air she could master into her lungs, filling them with his scent, sending a shiver down her spine. Maker...his scent...it was so perfect...how could it be so perfect...musky, like ink, old paper and fire... Slowly she turned her head, pressing her nose into his coat. She closed her eyes, letting the scent carry her thoughts away for a moment. Her fingers were struggling to grab into the fabric, fighting if to follow her knowledge of not doing it, or the instict of grabbing into him for dear life. The warmth of his body was sweeping into her clothes, making her feel home like not many things could. Her lower lip started to temble, as her eyes overflowed in joy and sadness at the same time, sucking the breath out of her lungs through sheer emotion only.

For a moment Varric thought everything was gonna be okay. Just a friendly hug. She was taking it well. Then he heard it. This sound of a breathless voice, whimpered and then a sniff. Shit, she was crying. How could he have misjuded the situation THIS much? A little error was always there, but this...this was different. He placed one hand on her lower back, his other stroking over her shoulder. "Its fine, Flower..." he encouraged her gently, dropping the attitude, for just a few minutes. He could do that. He felt like he had to. He felt her shoulders twitching under his hand, as he breath became stuttering, fueling the soft wheeping. Shit, what should he do? "Hey...look at me..." he tried, in lack of alternatives, lightly pulling away his head from hers, while his hand reached down, gently placing his fingers on her jawline, to guide her face somewhere he could see. Here eyes were red, a little bit of liquid running out of her nose, as she could barely keep her eyes open to look at him. It wasn't pretty, he wouldn't pretend. But it was genuine. And thats what he needed to see.

His facial features were blurry to her, as she tried to control her sobbing, only making it worse through it. This must be what it felt like. To loose your mind. She was sure of it. It was so much, and yet not enough, and it would always be that way. There was nothing to take or give, just this, and she wanted to scream in anger and sadness. But she didn't...he wouldn't understand, how could he... She just stood there, looking at him, while he sobs faded slowly; just standing there, trying to focus on him. But he didn't leave. Just stood there, in the same place, while her soul wept over a situation that was biting his own tail. Painful and unable to let go of it, knowing the pain would get worse, if the bite would be undone. Slowly she closed her eyes, trying to relax them. Her view felt strained, her chest empty. She needed air. A deep breath, her breath still stuttering, but softly now. Calm...its fine...this is fine... A warmth engulded the skin on the left side of her face. She opened her eyes again, blinking a few times to shed the last few tears blurring her vision. He was looking at her. His hand holding up her head, that felt to heavy right now. There was a dull pain hammering against her skull from the inside, it felt bad. But the warmth...it was making it better. She relaxed, letting the full weight of her head fall into the warmth of his his hand. Another deep breath. A soft stroke of a finger over her skin. Another deep breath. A warmth against her forehead. Breathe. Warm air against her skin. Breathe. Another gust of air, a warm tingle in small of her back, a shiver running down her spine. Breathe. A touch against the side of her nose, lingering there, warmth. Breathe. A soft warmth against her lips. A shiver rising up from her lower back over her spine, breath catching up in surprise, fingers looking for something to hold on, digging themselves into fabric...breathe...warmth. Warmth everywhere. All over her body just wamth and comfort. She leaned in a little more. Fuzzyness and warmth. Two breaths crossing...the faint taste of alcohol against her tounge...

Shit.

#dragon age #dragon age: Inquisition #dragon age fanfic #dragon age oc #varric tethras #varric #female oc #fanfiction #varric fanfiction #fluff #fluff fanfic #kinda cute i guess

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prorevenge · 6 years ago

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1 & 20 Years Paying the Bitch Back

Buckle up. It’s a long ride with a pleasant finish.

Some time back I was hired to a company by a CEO I had previously worked for someplace else. He was a good friend so when his newest company wasn’t achieving sales, he headhunted me to join the new one.

The company hadn’t made a sale in two years. Year one the software product was in beta so it wasn’t ready to be sold. Year two they realized using the tech staff to make high end sales to C-level executives was the shittiest sales model one could conceptualize. In general, and there are exceptions of course, these two personality styles don’t speak the same language. Tech people talk tech. Buyers talk benefits and how the potential product fills needs. I bridge the gap well by translating tech-speak into natural conversational language so buyers better understand how their needs will be filled.

The job was an hour and a half drive one-way from my home so the CEO said I could work from home as long as I kept the sales management tool current (it’s where you keep the notes of each prospect’s status), came to important meetings and made sure the executive team had daily sales reports.

The first month I made the daily 3 hour commute because I needed to have solid, constant interaction with all the departments to rapidly form my sales strategy and develop a two-way confidence level with the section heads.

Once I had a handle on things, I was ready to launch my sales plan. In the meantime, the CEO hired a VP of Sales (bitchboss) who started 4 days before I hit the ground running to get in front of buyers.

She was a VP coming from the banking industry and had a long career in sales and marketing in finance products. I hated her from the moment she arrived. She knew fuck all about tech and I spent huge time trying to orient her which wasn’t ideal because I needed to work on my sales strategy. They brought her onboard because she had strong experience gaining financial investors.

Nevertheless, I forged ahead. Traveled to a target state and spent 19 days criss crossing it. When I came back I had 17 contracts from buyers totaling about $2M in sales. My CEO was overjoyed.

Fast forward six months and now working from home, I’m rocking and rolling. Sales are strong. CEO is happy. Good things are happening.

Bitchboss has landed an investor willing to drop $6M into the company, and they are coming into town for a discovery meeting. She asks me to drive up because they specifically want to meet the salesperson. Seconds before walking in the door for the big meeting, bitchboss pulls me aside and says she needs me to back her up on lie she has told them. Basically she doubled my sales numbers. I told her there was no way I was going to do that. She says the CEO has okayed the lie.

We get to the part in the talk where the investor is looking over my inflated sales numbers on the prospectus, then directly asks me how many sales I’m making a month. Bitchboss is behind him waving her arms but I was having none of it and answered truthfully. He looks askance staring at the document which has the false number listed, while she’s giving me the stink eye behind him.

No one says a word. Dead silence.

I ask to see the document and fates have aligned allowing me to solve the dilemma. I explain the first two numbers were transposed (they correlated well to my real sales versus inflated sales if you flip-flopped the first two digits.) Potential investor is satisfied and we move on.

Switch gears. About a week later I was meeting with the CIO in his office and he referred to my “big tits.” I’m no shrinking violet but it stunned me because it was so unexpected.

That night I was chatting with my BFF who happens to be a lawyer and told him about it in casual conversation. He said I should tell the CEO so he can address it. Thinking along smart business practices, I decide to tell bitchboss to whom I directly report as proper protocol since we don’t have a HR dept yet. Side note-I also reported directly to CIO as a boss since my role was a muddy mix of sales and tech.

The next day CEO calls me and I take him through it telling him it’s no big deal but to make sure he talked to CIO so it didn’t happen again. He says he’ll do it right away.

Two days later I check in with him and CEO still hadn’t talked to CIO because the investors were in town. I gently push him to get it done and casually mention my best friend who happened to be a lawyer was the one who urged me tell him because “any good CEO would want to know about it.” I reiterate I’m not mad or upset.

The only word he heard was “lawyer.”

He went apeshit that I was bringing a lawyer into the mix. Now this guy was my good friend. We’d worked together at two companies for years. I calmed him down (or so I thought,) explaining that I only wanted him to talk to CIO. I also told him I HADN’T brought a lawyer into it, that I had been innocently chatting with BFF who just happens to be a criminal defense attorney. He seemed okay and we hung up.

The next day I’m working as usual and I get a call from an attorney who explains the company has hired her regarding my sexual harassment claim. I’m flummoxed and adamantly told her that was not the case, that I had no claim against the company. She said otherwise.

And that’s when everything changed. Dramatically.

CEO was furious with me for bringing this on when investors were looking at us. His reaction set the tone which filtered down. The company began to retaliate against me. Bitchboss now made it her mission to make my life hell: “forgetting” to tell me about important meetings I was supposed to attend, freezing me out when I was in the office, telling me I could no longer even speak to CIO (a problem since I’m selling a multi-million dollar tech product needing his input AND I directly reported to him as my other boss), denying me a long planned, approved vacation, basically anything she could devise to screw me over-she was gleefully working it.

Coinciding with this was a serious health problem I developed ultimately requiring surgery. My illness had no impact on my work as I was able to work from home which made things easier on me health wise. Bitchboss then decided that I need to come to the office every day despite a 3 hour round trip commute.

Now I know you’re thinking why didn’t I just leave, get another job somewhere else...

I needed the health insurance. There was no way to turn around another job fast enough and I had a complex surgery scheduled requiring 3 surgeons for my procedure.

My doctor gave me a note for them which released me from having to make the daily commute so I could continue to work at home. As long as my work didn’t suffer, they legally couldn’t force me to commute especially since working from home was a part of my employment contract from the outset.

The night before my surgery, bitchboss calls to tell me they’ve cancelled my health insurance. After hanging up with bitchboss I collapsed on the floor in a faint. I was so, so, so sick, and mentally exhausted from all the stress.

The next morning the CEO frantically calls asking to talk to me. My mom refuses to let him. I’m on official leave as of that morning and we’re heading to the hospital. CEO had told their lawyer about canceling my health insurance and she chewed him a new asshole telling him it was illegal. They immediately reinstated my insurance.

In the two weeks I was out, my mom had found a lawyer for me as it was clear shenanigans were going on. I still needed them as an employer because I was in no shape to rigorously job hunt while recovering.

Turns out all the bullshit they were doing to me is illegal. Companies aren’t allowed to retaliate against employees when they report nefarious acts against them.

I met with my new lawyer who said I had an excellent claim for retaliation and took me on. He said I had to continue working there while he did his thing to stay within protocol while he filed the EEOC claim.

Now it’s time for me to return to work. The company had relocated (planned) during my absence and bitchboss refused to tell me where so I couldn’t come back to work. Company lawyer told them they HAD to tell me so bitchboss gives me wrong directions making me late on day one.

I walk in the new office and it looks like any other place except for one thing. There is a wide open area directly in front of the CEO’s glass office with a single desk in the middle of it. Welcome to my new desk.

Also, I wasn’t allowed to do sales anymore. In fact, I wasn’t allowed to do anything, at all, period.

They had hired a bunch of new people to the company and they treated me like a pariah. Turns out bitchboss had gone to them telling a pack of lies and if they know what’s good for them they’ll stay away.

Since I had nothing to do but couldn’t just sit there looking like a dope, I worked on documenting everything being done to me per my lawyer’s advice. I was meticulous in my note taking.

Bitchboss began writing me up. Stupid stuff like not answering my phone on the first ring and for asking questions during company wide meetings, asking to see my personnel file which employees are legally entitled to do although not entitled to photocopy any of it.

Each time she wrote me up, I had to sign the write up. There was a space for me to reply to it so I consistently wrote, “I do not agree with this assessment.” It infuriated her so much, she wrote me up again for writing the statement that I didn’t agree with it.

There were several instances where she called me into her office and literally began screaming at me loudly and enthusiastically. I wouldn’t engage though; my standard answer to everything was OK which made her apoplectic. At one point, she’s inches from my face screaming, her face beet red and I just sat there with a dreamy expression whilst envisioning her blowing a vein in her head stroking out. I infuriated her with my equanimity.

Still and all, I was in it to win it at this point. It didn’t matter what new humiliation they dished out. I took it all with a bland face, then went to my desk and documented it in my notebook.

She loathed my notebook, sure that I was doing exactly what I was doing. Documenting. Because it was my personal property though, she couldn’t take it from me. I had to carry all my belongings with me everywhere (company wide meetings, the bathroom, lunch) because I caught her one time going through my desk drawer....in my fucking purse!!!!! (Although it gave me great joy to write a note reading “fuck you” which I left in my backpack and jerry rigging it so I could tell if she went into it...which she did.)

I withstood it all with a brave face only breaking down once I left for the day. My attorney took a lot of sobbing phone calls during this period.

Finally the day comes that my attorney has what he needs and I can resign, better still, he advises I don’t have to give a two week notice. I come back from lunch and type up my letter with one sentence, “I resign immediately.” I take it into the HR guy (who also took part in their evil machinations) and hand it to him. His mouth forms an O shape and he half stands up from his chair as he reads it. He looks up and I give him a smile and say bye bye just as sweet as pie, walked out the door and drove home feeling mighty fine.

One month later, my lawyer and I are at the EEOC office along with the CEO, bitchboss and their lawyer so the EEOC can review my claim.

In my state, you can’t just bring a lawsuit against a company for things like harassment and retaliation. Claims must first be evaluated by the EEOC, and then if they determine you have enough grounds to file a lawsuit, they issue a Right to Sue document.

My lawyer presented my case logically and forthright detailing all the evidence. It took him 40 minutes to go through it all. Then they presented their side with allegations of my poor employment along with their “evidence” which were all the copious write ups bitchboss had written. EEOC asks about the timeline of the write ups inquiring if they before or after my claim occurred. Bitchboss wearing a smug self-satisfied smile states they were all prior to my claim as noted by the dates on each document.

EEOC Lady looks at my lawyer. My lawyer looks at me. I look at bitchboss then serenely pull out MY photocopies of the documents. Whilst handing them to EEOC lady, bitchboss barks “she’s not supposed to have those, they’re company property.” I show EEOC lady that the dates have clearly been altered by Bitchboss. (She had made copies with the dates blanked out then backdated them.)

You see whenever she wrote me up, I had to take the document personally to the CEO to put in my personnel file. Along the way though, I stopped at the copier and took copies. She never knew I was doing this.

You could’ve heard a pin drop.

EEOC Lady reviews the copies then slowly sets them on the table. She didn’t say a thing for a long time, then she spoke. I can remember her words exactly to this day.

“I’ve seen a lot of ill treatment and illegal undertakings by both employees and employers, including forged or altered documents, but I have never see someone so incredibly stupid to present documents this easily disproved. Not only are employees entitled to receive and keep a copy of formal write ups but reading these ridiculous allegations, it’s obvious you are trying to manufacture your case.”

She went on to say I had a clear case for a lawsuit, and moreover I would win it. She recommended their side go in another room and determine a settlement amount to pay me immediately or risk the lawsuit.

They went to a nearby office and I could hear the lawyer dressing them down. Words I heard included “lied to me” “lied to EEOC” “presenting false documents” “broke so many laws” “figure out a number big enough to pay her so this doesn’t go to court because you will lose.”

They came back with a $50k offer which we accepted. My lawyer and I left then did a football touchdown dance in the parking lot. Looking up at the EEOC window, I could see bitchboss in the window looking miserable and crying.

She had just been fired.

That was my year 1 revenge.

I’m not a hateful person. I get mad and get over it. But... for bitchboss, I nurtured hatred and vowed to one day get revenge, so I kept tabs on her, and discovered she opened a finance marketing company after she was fired. Then I waited a year before exacting my petty delight.

For the past 18 years, I’ve executed a wonderful, soul-refreshing project. Each year I go to her website and write down all the work email addresses and phone numbers for the employees. Then I subscribe them all to “get more information” from places like online schools, online insurance companies-all those bullshit aggressive organizations that keep your contact information longer than a gypsy fucking curse while trying to sell you stuff.

The last few years, I’ve subscribed them to an email bomb service where the service takes the address and instantly subscribes it to 1000s of newsletters, request for more information feeds and other online buyers of email addresses for marketing services. I tested it with a burner email and it wreaks havoc on your inbox with thousands of emails received within seconds, and they never.... fucking... stop....

You literally have to close down the email because it can’t be salvaged. Each year when I go to collect the contact information, all the emails have been changed to new ones.

Last year my cousin took a job in the same building. I enlisted her help and she made it a point to befriend a receptionist working for bitchboss. After executing my yearly plan, my cousin went to lunch with her. The receptionist was in a foul mood and explained the entire organization was in disarray because IT had to redo all the emails again. “It keeps happening over and over and nobody can figure out why.”

She said the owner (bitchboss) has had to get her cell phone number replaced 3 times because of all the texts and phone calls she gets whenever it happens again. (sometimes bitchboss would have her phone number on the website which I duly subscribed to everything under the sun.)

The best part for me was hearing how she lost a mega client because they felt the company was in too much turmoil so often.

The thought of this keeps me warm and cozy at night, and I sleep so very, very well.

(source) story by (/u/digitalgirlie)

#prorevenge #by /u/digitalgirlie #pro revenge #revenge stories #pro revenge stories #pro #revenge #last10

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remastered-feedback · 6 years ago

Link

Alright, lets run down the problems here.

Many, like Butcher, say they’re in training. Others report disability. All are missing out on a hot labor market and crucial years on the job, ones traditionally filled with the promotions and raises that build the foundation for a career.

I don’t think it needs mentioning just how offensive lumping someone who’s on disability in with a group your article is centered around painting as making unwise career decisions. I’m pretty sure most of the people who are disabled would much rather be fully able-bodied and working.

Their absence from the working world has wider economic consequences. It marks a loss of human talent that dents potential growth. Young people who get a rocky start in the job market face a lasting pay penalty. And economists partly blame the decline in employed, marriageable men for the recent slide in nuptials and increase in out-of-wedlock births. Those trends foster economic insecurity among families, which could worsen outcomes for the next generation.

“How dare you not buy weddings you don’t want and houses you can’t afford!”

It’s difficult to pin down whether the demographic wants to remain on the sidelines or is kept there by a dearth of attractive options.

It’s the second one. As a member of the demographic in-question, I can tell you with 100% certainty that it’s the second one. I’d much rather be working, making money, saving up to move out. I spent all summer applying to entry-level jobs supposedly aimed at people with lower skill levels, as well as for jobs my degree should have me eminently qualified for. I’m not unemployed because I want to be, I’m unemployed because nothing is hiring that pays enough to have anything to save after taxes, bills, transit costs, student loans, etc.

Other social changes could be exacerbating the trend. Better video games might make leisure time more attractive, some economists hypothesize, and opioid use might make many less employable. Young adults increasingly live with their parents, and cohabitation might be providing a “different form of insurance,” said Erik Hurst, an economist at the University of Chicago.

“Clearly the problem isn’t a lack of competitive wages or work-life balance, it’s those damn videogames! That, and they’re all drug-addicted layabouts. Those are probably tied to the out-of-wedlock children we mentioned too...”

Replace “videogames” with “rock music” and you have literally the exact same argument that’s been made about every single generation for the past 70 years.

Young men have been reporting higher rates of school and training as a reason for their non-employment in a Labor Department survey, and a large share say that disability and illness are keeping them from work. Those factors explain much of the wider post-2007 participation gap between 25- to 34-year-olds and their older counterparts, according to an analysis by Evercore ISI economist Ernie Tedeschi.

“Those damn lazy millennials, ignoring this booming economy!”

“Actually, a lot of us are too sick to work, and a lot of those who are able to work are too busy getting more advanced training to get a job too. We spent 20-30 years watching our parents work themselves to death in jobs they hated, while they spent the entire time telling us that education and advanced training were the ticket to a better life than that.”

“Of course, it’s the videogames! That and the drugs...”

I can go on about this article for a while, but I have better things to do. Like, topically, applying for jobs. One last thing I want to touch on though is to give my personal experience about why I, a man between the ages of 25 and 34 who is ostensibly the target of this article, am currently unemployed and not partaking in that “hot labor market.”

I graduated college in 2015, and managed to get a job in my field a few months after graduation. I worked that job until mid-2017, when I quit to go back to school. The main reason I quit was because it became clear pretty quickly that there was no room for advancement in that company. Two annual reviews in, I was working the same entry-level part-time position that I started with, at the same entry-level hourly wage I started with. With the exception of Jewish holidays - which I think I made up for by coming in on Christmas and Easter - jury duty, two days I was bedridden, and that time there was literally an overturned truck blocking the highway, I never missed a day, and I never said no. They said jump, I said how high, did everything you were supposed to.

Both of my annual reviews were glowing, and yet in this job that, according to the article, was supposed to be full of raises and promotions, and doing work that, according to my manager, was top-notch, I repeatedly got passed over for both.

Annoyed that I was working borderline full-time hours - technically you’re not full-time unless you’re working 40+ hours a week, and I was routinely working 36-38 - without any of the benefits of full-time work, regularly getting at-most one day off a week, all just for an attaboy and a paycheck that barely covered commuting costs and student loans, I quit and went back to school.

I thought about getting a different job in the same field, but I decided school made more sense, because programming and network security, the two fields at the heart of Maryland Governor Larry Hogan’s jobs initiative, a jobs initiative he’s so proud of that it was one of the core pushes to his reelection campaign earlier this week, had much higher earnings potential than my old field.

To recap, I found a job, worked it for a year or two, did everything I was supposed to and then some according to my boss, yet got passed over for a raise or a promotion multiple times. Dissatisfied, and at the urging of my pro-business, pro-jobs governor, I left and went back to school to get certifications and complete coursework to change careers into the field he was aggressively pushing for more people in my state to change into. I did very well in my courses, got certified, and spent all summer applying to entry-level jobs in my new field. I got one call-back all summer, and it was for a company that wanted me to relocate to Northern Virginia for a job that paid less than $20,000 a year. Housing in northern VA is ridiculously expensive, with a median house value over $500k. To call that financial suicide would be an understatement, especially since my interviewer made it very clear that raises, promotions, or other advancements would not be happening for at least three years. Eventually, I got desperate enough to apply for jobs in my old field, and the only place that returned my call was the place I used to work. I’d prefer not to return there, but I’d be lying if I didn’t admit I’m considering it.

I’m not asking for pity. My ship will come in eventually, even if it’s less of a ship and more of a canoe, and even if I have to build the damn thing myself, board by board. All I’m asking is that instead of assuming that that millennials are out-of-work because we’re lazy drug-addicted gamers with unrealistic standards, consider that maybe we’re out-of-work because we’re getting next-to-no job offers, that the job offers we are getting pay so little that once you factor in the costs necessary to take them, they’re a net loss, and that when we do actually get a job, those raises and promotions you seem to think are so plentiful are nowhere to be found even after literal years of good, hard work.

Also, stop calling this a red-hot booming economy. Wages are stagnant and haven’t kept up with inflation in our lifetimes, housing has become prohibitively expensive in the majority of cities with jobs to offer, underemployment is at the highest it’s been in decades, and the vast majority of jobs that have been created since the recession are low-wage, part-time jobs with no potential for advancement or career prospects.

The only people this is a booming economy for are people who were already well off. For people trying to get started or who don’t have much money in the bank, the people that this article is criticizing for our lack of economic participation, this is a horrible economy where everything is expensive, home ownership is a pipe dream, nobody’s willing to hire anyone for more than minimum wage, and in the off chance you do land a job that’s not a dead end, they have no interest in giving you a raise or a promotion at any point.

#Drama ahoy!#Feed is mad

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auskultu · 8 years ago

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HOUSE-TO-HOUSE SEARCH FOR SNIPERS BEGUN AS RIOT ENTERS 6TH DAY

Homer Bigart, The New York Times, 17 July 1967

NEWARK – National Guard troops and the police hunted house to house for snipers today after gunfire claimed three more lives in this riot-torn city.

Nearly half of Newark’s 23.7 square miles was an occupied zone. As sporadic sniping continued, guardsmen and policemen—weary and trigger-quick after days and nights of tension—were reported to have engaged each other in several accidental gunfights.

The actions of the guardsmen and the state police drew angry protests yesterday from moderate leaders of the Negro community. They accused the militia and the police of harassing peacemakers and of destroying Negro-owned stores.

12-Year-Old Boy Killed The latest riot victim was a 12-year-old Negro boy, Michael Pugh, who was shot in the side early this morning. He died in Newark City Hospital.

Witnesses said he was emptying a pail of garbage in front on his home on 15th Avenue. His family said the shot had come from a group of guardsmen standing a block away.

The boy’s death raised the toll in the six days of rioting to 24 dead. Early last night, Mrs. Eloise Spellman, 41, died of gunshot wounds. She had been caught in crossfire between guardsmen and snipers while in her 1Oth-floor apartment at 322 Hunterdon Avenue.

Earlier, a teen-age Negro was shot in the chest by the state police while allegedly looting a store at Bergen Street and Custer Avenye.

Since the riots began, more than 700 have been injured am more than 1,200 arrested.

The police radio kept warning: "Be sure of target. HoId fire until you are sure of target.”

A state trooper, CpI. Samuel Leon, was shot twice, in an arm and the buttocks, and ws: taken to Newark City Hospital That hospital game under sniper fire for the third straight night. Doctors and nurses dropped to the floor during 10 minutes of sniping that started at 9:30 P.M.

The police began shooting from hallway windows and guardsmen threw tear gas into an abandoned three-story house near the hospital, but failed tc rout any suspects. Two guardsmen were overcome by tear gas.

Gov. Richard J. Hughes reported late yesterday that there had been a reduction in violence. But at 9:30 P.M. sniper suddenly intensified in two separate areas—High Street, Orange Street and Central Avenue.

At 11:30 P.M. all city bus ceased operation. Except for the occasional crackle of rifle fire, the city fell silent.

Governor Hughes said at news conference yesterday that despite the efforts of the powerful force of guardsmen and state and city police the situation remained critical.

The Governor’s command post in the Roseville Avenue Armory was not far from where a sniper was reported to have taken up a firing position. A large crowd of whites that ha been loitering all day in front of the armory was disperse and the streets were cleared.

The police had warnings of rising vigilantism among white living near the ghetto. Three white teen-agers were arrested when a search of their car disclosed a rifle and a shotgun.

Businesses Advised Governor Hughes asked major business concerns to remain closed today. He said that the national railroad strike would clog the streets with thousands of commuters trying to read work by car or bus and that he did not want traffic jams in the riot area.

He asked, however, that food stores and restaurants remain open. Banks and public utilities will also open.

Newark College of Engineering will be closed both day and night. Rutgers University will be open in the day but closed at night.

Mr. Hughes directed all schools in Newark to remain closed today, and urged that only essential businesses—among them food stores and pharmacies—open. He said liquor stores and taverns would remain closed "until we can say order has been restored.”

One of Newark’s largest employers, the Public Service Electric and Gas Company, said only 500 essential workers among its 2,500 employees would be called in today.

The Prudential Insurance Company of America, which employs 9,000 people, said its Newark headquarters would be closed.

The riots and the railroad strike prompted the Selective Service System to postpone the induction of 500 men who were scheduled to report today. Col. Joseph T. Avella, the state’s director of Selective Service, said draft boards would notify those affected of a new induction date.

The Governor said he hoped for an early resumption of critical services, such as garbage collection, in the Negro districts. This, he said, would depend on the security situation. Thousands of residents of the heavily Negro Central Ward lined up for hours to receive meager rations of food as the first supplies since Wednesday night began moving into the area under armed guard. Distribution centers manned by volunteers were set up in housing projects and community centers and five supermarkets were reopened under police guard.

Emergency distribution of food might be adversely affected by the national railroad strike, he said.

The first efforts to bridge the gulf between the white and Negro communities collapsed yesterday.

Peace Effort Fails A five-man interracial committee that had recruited several hundred persons to urge the mobs to "cool it” reported complete failure. The peace missionaries, who wore lime-colored armbands, said their leaders had decided to drop the campaign because of harassment by the National Guard and state police.

Adam Garrett, a committee member, said the volunteers would confine their efforts to telling Negroes living in the besieged areas where to go for emergency food and medicine.

Far more damaging to prospects for peace was the reaction of middle-class Negroes to what they called "wanton destruction” perpetrated early today by state policemen and guardsmen.

They charged that shop windows bearing the sign "Soul Brother”—indicating that the owner was a Negro—had been systematically smashed by state troopers’ bullets or been bashed in by the rifle butts of guardsmen. Most of this destruction, they said, took place along Bergen Street, in one of the better Negro residential areas in the West Ward.

Yesterday morning, groups of well-dressed Negroes stood on the street corners of the West Ward and surveyed the damage with somber wrath. J. J. Brown, the proprietor of a record store on Avon Avenue, had put a sign on his damaged window. It said: “State Police Shot Up This Store!”

Residents said two carloads of state troopers entered the area sometime after 3 A.M. and fired into the store windows. Guardsmen joined in the destruction, they said, using rifle butts.

Governor Hughes, at a late afternoon news conference called the charges “hearsay” but added that he was “disturbed” by the reports ai would be glad to investigate the Negroes would provide “facts, figures, time and places.”

Immediately after the Governor’s news conference a delegation of 40 Negroes, armed with photographs of smashed storefronts and some slugs from .38-caliber bullets that said were found inside the stores, arrived at the Rosevil Avenue Armory to see the Governor and confront him with telegram they had sent to Pre ident Johnson.

They said they wanted the National Guard and the state police replaced by “fully integrated Federal troops.”

The telegram to the President explained that Federal troops were needed because of “wanton destruction of property and “actual murders” committed by the police and Nationl Guard men.

Dr. Reynold C. Burch, a leaf er of the group, said innocent Negroes had been killed in “indiscriminate firing” by the ant riot forces.

The telegram also cited “inflammatory statements” by Governor Hughes and Mayor Hugh J. Addonizio and the alleged mobilization of white vigilantes in areas bordering the Negro ghetto.

This vigilante move was fostered, the telegram said, by "ignorant statements made by the Mayor and Governor.” It urged action by the President "by nightfall.”

Governor Hughes said he was aware of Negro charges that the presence of the National Guard and the state police was only adding to the legacy of hate left by the nation’s worst racial explosion in two years He said he was “assessing” the role of the Guard and the police.

But he called the snipers "unregenerate criminals” and said the guardsmen and the state police would “remain until order is restored.”

Weary National Guard men who said they were members of Headquarters Company of the 114th Division, from Woodbury, N. J., ducked sniper fire in the Negro Central Ward in the hours between midnight and dawn yesterday.

“It’s a lousy thing,” a private first class said as he clutched his M-1 rifle with its fixed bayonet. "The first time we ever shot at anyone, and we're shooting at Americans.” The police revised their figures downward last night on the number of persons arrested land injured. They said 1,257 had been arrested and 702 injured.

In a predawn conference yesterday, Governor Hughes offered executive clemency to any prisoners who would give evidence leading to the conviction of a sniper.

Coatless, red-eyed with fatigue, still incensed over the shooting of a fire captain by snipers, the Governor denounced the sniping attacks as “senseless, terrible and criminal.”

He said that State Attorney General Arthur Sills would urge Essex County Prosecutor Brendan Byrne to propose maximum sentences for charges growing out of sniping incidents. He also said he would ask the State Supreme Court to expedite the court calendars to allow the earliest possible processing of these cases.

"I will urge clemency for looters if, and only if, such persons give information leading to the arrest of a person for sniping,” the Governor said.

No Conspiracy Seen Governor Hughes, appearing with Mayor Addonizio on a televised news conference at noon, said the police estimated that as many as 25 snipers were operating in the ghetto. He said he had been told that "some” of those arrested were from outside the city, and added that the police believed some dead snipers were still in or on buildings in Central Ward.

Neither the Governor nor the Mayor said he had any evidence of a conspiracy by an outside group, but the Governor said that “the rather expert sniping, the jumping from place to place—the cruel and despicable efficiency with which this sniping occurred—indicates some organization and some coordination between these criminals participating in it.”

He charged that many of the rioters were "committing violence because they hate America.”

Early yesterday afternoon, escorted by a carload of state policemen with riot guns, Governor Hughes made a quick tour of Negro districts. He said he was pleased to find a partly looted chain grocery had reopened again for business.

He said he thought that the looting and plundering phase of the disorders was over, but reports of scattered pillage later in the day proved him premature.

Mr. Hughes said he had told the Episcopal Bishop of Newark, the Right Rev. Leland Stark, one of the sponsors of the national black power conference scheduled to start here Thursday, that he couldn’t think of "a worse time or a worse place to have a black power meeting.”

He insisted again that he did not need Federal troops. What the Federal government should do, he said, is send all possible economic aid to the city.

Newark is chronically depressed, with an unemployment rate considerably more than double the national average. Economic misery is the root cause of the riot, the Governor said.

Local leaders of the Congress of Racial Equality and the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee held a news conference yesterday afternoon and issued a demand for "immediate withdrawal of National Guard units and state and Newark police from the ghetto.

James Hooper, chairman of the Newark CORE, said Mayor Addonizio had neglected Negro problems. One major grievance, he said, was lack of relocation facilities for people displaced by the proposed construction of a medical college in the heart of the ghetto.

The presence of troops and police only intensified the rioting, Mr. Hooper said.

"Parents aren’t going to sit back and let their kids get shot up,” said Jesse Allen, a CORE organizer. “They’ll go into the streets, too. Then this town will turn into a cemetery. The police are out of control and the National Guard is out of control, too.”

The leaders said the black power conference should proceed as scheduled.

But the crowd of white men loitering near Governor Hughes’s command post in the Roseville Armory sounded equally aggressive.

“If they want war, they’ll get it,” growled one man.

Something very much like war has occurred here as sniper fire from roofs and blackened windows has caused police to spray bullets into tenements and housing projects at scattered points.

Half a dozen fire stations have come under sniper fire. Engine Company 12, in the West Ward, was forced to stay in its quarters for several hours by intense fire.

#1960s #1967 #1967 newark riots #60s #african americans #ghetto #inequality #law and order #national guard #new jersey #newark #police brutality #race riot #racism #sixties #white backlash #riots

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preciousmetals0 · 5 years ago

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Travel Bans and Broken Circuit Breakers

Travel Bans and Broken Circuit Breakers:

Rolling in the Deep

Double the circuit breakers, double the fun?

For the second time this week, trading halted on Wall Street — both in futures trading and during the regular session.

Welcome to the bear market.

Sparking the chaos this time around was President Trump’s less-than-reassuring and confusing response to the growing COVID-19 threat. The confusion started in a speech last night, when Trump announced a 30-day ban on travel from Europe.

Well, most travel. The Department of Homeland Security later clarified that the U.K. and the Irish Republic are exempt, as are U.S. citizens and permanent residents coming from Europe.

Trump also said that the ban “will not only apply to the tremendous amount of trade and cargo, but various other things.” However, he later clarified that the ban only applied to people, not goods or trade.

Confused yet? Here’s another mixed message…

A final point of contention was Trump’s claim that American health insurance companies had agreed to waive copays for coronavirus tests and treatments: “Earlier this week, I met with the leaders of health insurance industry who have agreed to waive all co-payments for coronavirus treatments, extend insurance coverage to these treatments, and to prevent surprise medical billing.”

This statement also needed some fine-tuning, which industry group America’s Health Insurance Plans was more than happy to provide: “For testing. Not for treatment,” the group said.

The Takeaway:

What we’ve got here is failure to communicate. Some men, you just can’t reach. So you get what we had here last week — which is the way he wants it. Well, he gets it. And I don’t like it any more than you men. — Captain, Cool Hand Luke

Regular Great Stuff readers know that I’m politically agnostic on here … and for good reason. Preaching politics doesn’t make you money. It doesn’t protect your investments.

However, sometimes we need to take a closer look at what’s said in the political realm, because those actions have real-world repercussions on your portfolios … and your 401(k)s.

Today, Wall Street is saying loud and clear that it’s not happy with last night’s speech. Regardless of whether you agree with the president or not, the market still hit the down-limit circuit breakers … again.

The recent market panic even has the Oracle of Omaha befuddled. “And it may have taken me to 89 years of age to throw this one into the experience, but the markets, if you have to be open second by second, they react to news in a big time way,” Warren Buffett said in an interview on Yahoo Finance this week.

But you, dear readers … you aren’t befuddled. If you’re following along at home, you are holding bonds via the iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (Nasdaq: TLT), gold in the form of the SPDR Gold Trust (NYSE: GLD) and currencies in the Invesco CurrencyShares Swiss Franc Trust (NYSE: FXF).

These exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and similar investments are your critical fallout shelters from the market storm. Well … these ETFs and toilet paper, apparently. That stuff is almost as good as gold right now, and I think that says a lot about the market’s state of panic.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll keep saying it throughout this pandemic: Don’t panic.

Stay calm. Stay rational. There will be a time when this is all over. By preserving your capital, you position yourself to take full advantage of the rebound when it comes. And it will come, dear readers. It will come.

Now, perhaps moving assets to gold and buying bonds isn’t your thing. That’s OK.

There are other ways to prepare … yes indeed. Although, these murky market waters are tough to navigate on your own. Remember, the experts here at Banyan Hill have been in this kind of market environment many times before.

Just ask Ted Bauman — our resident expert on how to weather market turbulence. Instead of running for the hills, keen folks like Ted jump into the trenches, focusing on the best moves to make.

He just shared this urgent message with me from a former Washington insider.

If you’re still unsure of how to prepare for this volatility, it’s beyond time to watch this. Click here now!

The Good: Generally Great

Looking for an outstanding bargain for the start of the new bear market? Look no further than Dollar General Corp. (NYSE: DG).

The discount retailer checked all the right boxes with this morning’s quarterly report: better-than-expected growth in earnings, revenue and same-store sales. Dollar General also lifted guidance above Wall Street’s targets and boosted its quarterly dividend by 12.5%.

The retailer even said that it didn’t see any supply disruptions due to the coronavirus. The only thing missing from the standout report was a share buyback program.

For those of you who remember the last market mess back in 2008, you might also remember that discount retailers like Dollar General held up better than most. This should be true once again … especially since Dollar General stores are everywhere! Why go to that crowded supermarket when you can hit up your local DG to restock your stay-at-home supplies?

Now … I wonder if they have toilet paper?

The Bad: Party Over, Oops, out of Time

Life is just a party, and Party City Holdco Inc. (NYSE: PRTY) wasn’t meant to last.

If Dollar General is everything you want in a retailer right now, Party City is the exact opposite. The party supplier announced a net loss of more than half a billion dollars last quarter.

Adjusted earnings missed expectations, as did revenue, which plunged 9.2% year over year. Guidance for fiscal 2020 was also well below expectations.

Making matters worse, the company closed 35 stores last year and has already closed another 20 in 2020.

I mean, if you’re having an “end of the world” party, I guess Party City could be your mascot.

With most big gatherings and large events discouraged for the foreseeable future, I cannot see Party City rebounding in any meaningful way right now. That’s some harsh news for a stock that plunged 88% last year alone … and was nearly cut in half during today’s bloodbath.

The Ugly: Boeing’s Lost That Loving Feeling

“Come on, man. I hate it when she does that…” — Goose, Top Gun

Travel warnings couldn’t have come at a worse time for The Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA). The company was already struggling with orders and suspended operations due to the 737 Max debacle, but now it has something entirely different to worry about.

According to reports, the company froze hiring, suspended nonessential travel and placed limits on overtime. Boeing will also draw down (or completely withdraw) the rest of a $13.8 billion loan that it secured last month, according to “a person familiar with its plans.”

If you’re wondering what all this is about, it means that Boeing is in cash-preservation mode. With the coronavirus limiting global air travel, many airlines are pausing orders or outright canceling them. In short, Boeing is taking steps now to prepare for any such breakdown in orders — and potential troubles in the lending market, it seems.

In the long run, Boeing’s proactive moves are a good thing for the company. However, BA stock will be punished over the short term. This means that, eventually, BA shares will be a bargain-shopper’s dream. When that “eventually” will arrive, however, remains to be seen.

It’s time for Reader Feedback … and boy, did I strike a few nerves this week.

On Tuesday, I asked for your feedback on President Trump’s proposal to cut payroll taxes to zero. I wondered how people would take advantage of that tax cut if they were too sick to work, and how people would spend the money if they were quarantined or too sick to leave home.

And feedback I got…

Let Them Order Online!

Wake up! Did you ever hear of Amazon delivery to your door? Wow. If people have money and needs or wants, they will spend it. Enough said?

— Joe E.

People will spend money online.

— Sunny L.

What is wrong with you? That question/statement is so stupid it defies reason. We live in the world of Amazon.

— Elain M.

Has Great Stuff really forgotten that Jeff Bezos is our coronavirus savior? Nah, fam.

I know that you can order online. I took that into account when asking these questions. But I got this response so many times from so many of you that I thought I should at least give you some airtime.

You’re all correct. Amazon and online ordering do exist. But online sales only make up a fraction of the overall U.S. retail market — projections peg 2020 e-commerce sales at only 12.4% — mostly because not everyone has access to online ordering at home. Just throwing that out there for you to chew on.

Also, there’s nothing wrong with me. My mother had me tested.

The Coronavirus Is a Gas, Gas, Gas!

Most people who catch coronavirus have a mildly upset digestive system for the first two weeks and fart wherever they go, spreading more viruses. Then, the third week, it moves into the respiratory tract like a Type A flu bug, and people lose their voices and cough a lot.

It’s that first two weeks of farting around that makes the virus so contagious. Most people just blame something they ate. They don’t know they are contagious.

— Robert S.

I … I am … well. Ahem … you readers never cease to amaze me.

To reassure many of you out there, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that farts “do not constitute another transmission route of COVID-19, unless someone takes a good and rather close sniff of gas from a pantless patient.”

And that’s all I’m going to say about that.

Going, Going … Gone?

As a 50-year-old American who has worked my entire life and played by the rules, I want to know if my Social Security will be there in 15 years if we aren’t fully funding the program due to this “payroll” tax cut!

— T. Flores

T. is asking the real question here. This was my first reaction to the payroll tax cut news as well.

Now, Great Stuff doesn’t have a concrete answer for you on this one. So, I’m pitching this one over to Banyan Hill expert Ted Bauman:

I think the fair answer would be that it’s anyone’s guess!

We would need a change in Washington that takes the needs of citizens for a decent social safety net seriously. That’s the reality of the situation. If we continue to have the fantasyland crowd in charge, then it’s a given that Americans will be left to fend for themselves eventually.

Thanks, Ted!

Have you written in yet? What’s stopping you? Drop me a line at [email protected] and let me know how you’re doing out there in this crazy market.

That’s a wrap for today. But if you’re still craving more Great Stuff, you can check us out on social media: Facebook and Twitter.

Until next time, good trading!

Regards,

Joseph Hargett

Editor, Great Stuff

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goldira01 · 5 years ago

Link

Rolling in the Deep

Double the circuit breakers, double the fun?

For the second time this week, trading halted on Wall Street — both in futures trading and during the regular session.

Welcome to the bear market.

Well, most travel. The Department of Homeland Security later clarified that the U.K. and the Irish Republic are exempt, as are U.S. citizens and permanent residents coming from Europe.

Confused yet? Here’s another mixed message…

This statement also needed some fine-tuning, which industry group America’s Health Insurance Plans was more than happy to provide: “For testing. Not for treatment,” the group said.

The Takeaway:

Regular Great Stuff readers know that I’m politically agnostic on here … and for good reason. Preaching politics doesn’t make you money. It doesn’t protect your investments.

However, sometimes we need to take a closer look at what’s said in the political realm, because those actions have real-world repercussions on your portfolios … and your 401(k)s.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll keep saying it throughout this pandemic: Don’t panic.

Now, perhaps moving assets to gold and buying bonds isn’t your thing. That’s OK.

Just ask Ted Bauman — our resident expert on how to weather market turbulence. Instead of running for the hills, keen folks like Ted jump into the trenches, focusing on the best moves to make.

He just shared this urgent message with me from a former Washington insider.

If you’re still unsure of how to prepare for this volatility, it’s beyond time to watch this. Click here now!

The Good: Generally Great

Looking for an outstanding bargain for the start of the new bear market? Look no further than Dollar General Corp. (NYSE: DG).

The retailer even said that it didn’t see any supply disruptions due to the coronavirus. The only thing missing from the standout report was a share buyback program.

Now … I wonder if they have toilet paper?

The Bad: Party Over, Oops, out of Time

Life is just a party, and Party City Holdco Inc. (NYSE: PRTY) wasn’t meant to last.

If Dollar General is everything you want in a retailer right now, Party City is the exact opposite. The party supplier announced a net loss of more than half a billion dollars last quarter.

Adjusted earnings missed expectations, as did revenue, which plunged 9.2% year over year. Guidance for fiscal 2020 was also well below expectations.

Making matters worse, the company closed 35 stores last year and has already closed another 20 in 2020.

I mean, if you’re having an “end of the world” party, I guess Party City could be your mascot.

The Ugly: Boeing’s Lost That Loving Feeling

“Come on, man. I hate it when she does that…” — Goose, Top Gun

It’s time for Reader Feedback … and boy, did I strike a few nerves this week.

And feedback I got…

Let Them Order Online!

Wake up! Did you ever hear of Amazon delivery to your door? Wow. If people have money and needs or wants, they will spend it. Enough said?

— Joe E.

People will spend money online.

— Sunny L.

What is wrong with you? That question/statement is so stupid it defies reason. We live in the world of Amazon.

— Elain M.

Has Great Stuff really forgotten that Jeff Bezos is our coronavirus savior? Nah, fam.

Also, there’s nothing wrong with me. My mother had me tested.

The Coronavirus Is a Gas, Gas, Gas!

It’s that first two weeks of farting around that makes the virus so contagious. Most people just blame something they ate. They don’t know they are contagious.

— Robert S.

I … I am … well. Ahem … you readers never cease to amaze me.

And that’s all I’m going to say about that.

Going, Going … Gone?

— T. Flores

T. is asking the real question here. This was my first reaction to the payroll tax cut news as well.

Now, Great Stuff doesn’t have a concrete answer for you on this one. So, I’m pitching this one over to Banyan Hill expert Ted Bauman:

I think the fair answer would be that it’s anyone’s guess!

Thanks, Ted!

Have you written in yet? What’s stopping you? Drop me a line at [email protected] and let me know how you’re doing out there in this crazy market.

That’s a wrap for today. But if you’re still craving more Great Stuff, you can check us out on social media: Facebook and Twitter.

Until next time, good trading!

Regards,

Joseph Hargett

Editor, Great Stuff

#Timor Invest

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scottfraserphotography · 6 years ago

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The Score

By Scott Fraser November 8, 2018

The latest edition of the show was airing tonight. It had taken a while, and what started out as a crazy idea by a Billionaire who was tired of watching bad people fuck up the planet and people die and suffer as a result, had the idea to “correct” the problem. It was a pretty simple idea. Put a price on the head of dictators, terrorists, mass murders and those who had profited from the destruction of the planet.

When The Score first launched as an app, it was pretty straight forward. A name would be presented, with a link to all known documented and confirmed evidence against the Bounty. Additionally, there were in app links to video, news articles, and witness (if any) testimony. The idea was to inform those who contributed. And that was the beauty of the system - it was your choice if you wanted to see the Bounty taken down. From a single American dollar to millions, you and/or your company/organization could donate to fund the operation.

The “Operation” would be the recon and targeting of the Bounty. For ex-military combat trained men and women, here was a chance to make some serious money. Yes there were risks to your life if you signed up for an Operation, but one good kill could earn you enough to retire, and in the event you died on the mission, your family or whoever you assigned would get your payment. Professional Dogs of War, former intelligence operatives, or anyone who thought they had what it would take, could sign up, get mission training and the take part in the “Settling of The Score”.

The real genius of the system though, was that the Bounty could counter bid. A named target, could counter bid to have his or her name removed and with that, be ineligible to be added back to the list for eighteen months. The Score’s designers wanted to give someone the ability to repent if you will. Any and all funds collected from a Bounty’s counter bid, would go towards a selected humanitarian project.

There of course were all sorts of legal and ethical issues when it was first presented to the world. People of Power from the start tried to have it shut down. Religious groups opposed it, and tried to remind us all, that taking another’s life was a sin. Lawyers from around the globe launched lawsuits and injunctions. None of it mattered. The first Bounty had been given a 90 day timeline to bid, and in those first 90 days millions of people from around the globe had signed up. The first Bounty raised over $35,000,000.xx when the deadline had been reached. Forty days later, a terrorist dictator in North Africa had been killed, along with most of his top officials by a elite group of former special forces soldiers in the name of humanity. A part of the planet that for over two hundred years had suffered war, atrocities, crimes against humanity had a wake up call.

When the headlines broke about a successful Settling of The Score, the world took a moment to pause. How could an app do what governments had failed to do? How had the team been able to get in and out where so many others had failed? Intelligence agencies must be working with The Score team, at least that’s what people speculated. But mostly people talked about, how it had worked. And when the next Bounty’s headshot started showing at on people’s devices at noon EST the day after the first Operation completion, the app became the fastest adopted app of all time.

Saudi Arabia and Israel were the first to call for a World meeting to discuss having the app shut down. All that did was drive user numbers up. China declared that their weaponized AI would take the system down, but never delivered on their promise. World leaders who had nuclear arms, stated they would use their weapons of mass destruction against the app. But where was the app actually located on the planet? According to all known research the app used a form of quantum computing to spread itself out around the globe on various public and private networks. In countries where threats were made against the app, localized user adoption soared, and those numbers startled those in power. After all, what are you going to do when seventy percent of those whom you rule over use or have the app on their device? Experts around the globe speculated that it was actually an AI and not some human team who managed the system, and that it was semi self aware, and with that knowledge, it had the power to stay one step ahead of humanity.

The public, the public appeared to love the The Score. From London UK, to Tokyo to New York City people who had spent the past thirty years being flooded with images, video, sound clips and photos of the horror of what man-kind was capable of, everyday people had finally found a release. Men and women no longer had to sit by idle and watch the world burn. There was now a solution - no, it wasn’t perfect, and no, maybe it wasn’t ethical but as the app tagline stated, “Sometimes You have No Choice But to Fight Fire with Fire”.

In time the app evolved into what it is today, a weekly TV show with a two hour special upon completion of an operation. Like the arena in the era of Rome, the modern incarnation of a bloodsport event, it had become the most popular show on the air. Team members who had completed in multiple operations were now as revered as professional athletes and celebrities. Team member profiles could be anonymous or not, there by allowing members to keep their privacy and identity private. Billions had been raised as Bounty’s counter-bid to save their lives. In general, as a result of The Score, the world had become a better place.

The first big changes around the globe happened when the first non-terrorist/dictator/leader was elected as The Bounty. He was the CEO of a chemical company had been selected as a Bounty. He had tried in vain to have a legal loophole exposed. He spent millions on commercials, and TV slots pleading for his life. He even tried to buy his way out, but in the end, the world was done with him and his corporation destroying the planet for profit. And when he had been found dead, two bullets through the back of his head in his bedroom in his secure supposedly remote mansion in the Rockies of the US, the world again took a pause. The News outlets and media didn’t even wait for The Score to claim credit, they ran with it giving The Score credit for another successful operation completion.

Wall street tanked. Stock exchanges around the globe had their single worst day in history. But we got through it, and we adapted and the world moved forward. Just now there was a correction tool that no one was exempt from. Companies had evolved to insure there actions in the name of profits for shareholders, didn’t put any senior members at risk. Billionaire and Millionaires who had been idle and enjoyed their riches started to step forward and donate money, time and resources to solving global and humanitarian issues. World leaders who had once remained untouchable as they were “the good guys” but whom had been supplying weapons or goods and services to other nations of questionable morality stopped for fear they might be the next Bounty.

Hate groups and militia in so called free counties ceased to exist. More than few leaders of said groups had been Bounty’s in the first couple of years and well, apparently their resolve for those they hated was out weighed by wanting to stay alive. When the leader of North Korea had been listed, the dictator in power threatened again and again to use his weapons and armies to raze the world. But when it was announced he was dead, it was also announced that his entire family and extended family had been executed as well. The generals and military forces had wanted to make sure the world understood that They Had Gotten the message and that they would not allow anyone to claim the dead mans throne.

Drug cartel leaders. Dead. Mass murders. Dead. Organized crime leaders. Dead. If you profited from the destruction of the planet, you were put on notice. If your government had screwed over its citizens, you now had to worry you might be next. Where as other issues such as world hunger, poverty, climate change had been presented to humanity had failed to unite the citizens of the globe, The Score had succeeded. And humanity was better for it. Greed could get you killed. Being a shitty person could get you killed. Invading your neighbours to the north, well that could get you killed as well. You clear cut a rainforest, here’s your face next week on The Score as a possible future Bounty. Because that was part of what made it work - The Score didn’t need to actually have you be the next Bounty, all it had to do was list you as a possible future Bounty.

Tonight’s episode was a two hour conclusion. Due to the nature of the Operations, the conclusion episodes aired a week after the completion of an operation. Viewers wouldn’t know until Bounty had been claimed the airing of the next two hour special, but when we awoke to the news of death of the latest Bounty we all knew, in a week there would be a two-hour special airing. Playoff hockey, nope, Super Bowl game, nope, Presidential speech, nope. Whatever had been planned for the night of the special, better reschedule or have crappy viewer results, because we would all be watching The Score.

Yes the world still had issues, but I remember as a teen the stress my parents seemed to always be under because of the state of the world and that daily stream of fear which had once flooded everyone’s screens every waking minute of the day. Today we woke up looking forward to a new episode of The Score and not the atrocities committed in Pakistan against women or the needless death and destruction of a mad men in the middle east. We all slept just a little bit better these days, and generally, people were nicer to one another.

The fridge was stocked with beer, pizzas had been pre-ordered, the kids had friends coming over for the show tonight. It should be a good episode, the latest Bounty was a former police chief who in his career had allowed the shootings by his officers of fourteen innocent black men in his thirty years on the force. He had once belonged to the KKK. He had been complacent in the actions of those serving beneath him. He had been in a position of power with the ability to change things, and he didn’t. He had been part of the problem. The former police chief had been very vocal online about this is wrong, this is vigilante justice, this is barbaric, he has grandchildren, what about his sick wife. None of that mattered. The reality is, even with all his friends and political officials he knew, they hadn’t raised even a third of what the Order Bid had reached. Last Tuesday he had been found dead with the customary two bullets through the back of his head in a remote resort in Switzerland. Some called it Justice, others called it Entertainment - mostly people called it The Great Equalizer.

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robonomics · 7 years ago

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Abortion and Free Speech

The next controversial case SCOTUS released in the June term that I will discuss is National Institute of Family and Life Advocates v. Becerra. This case is a First Amendment challenge to a California law that requires certain disclosures on family crisis centers. What’s a family crisis center? It’s a pregnancy planning clinic that refuses to provide or acknowledge the existence of abortions. What did the California law require? For licensed facilities, the clinics were required to put up a notice that alerted patients to alternative free or state subsidized service providers who also give abortion as an option. For non-licensed facilities, the providers were required to post a notice that said that they do not have a license to operate nor any medical provider on staff. With both of these, there were multiple language requirements. Additionally, for the non-licensed facilities, the type of font, font size, placement of the text, and size of the paper were all specified in the statute.

I hate to say it but the majority got it right, or at least mostly. This term seems to have a lot of cases where I agree with the majority based on the law, and the bigger legal structure, but I want a different resulting effect because of the non-legal political issues at play. The pro-life people won this round, but really, all Americans won because this case isn’t really about abortion, it’s about Free Speech. Sure abortion will have this special free speech tool they can cling onto because abortion is “controversial” without needed explanation (see below), however, I don’t see it as a very strong tool given the many ways legislatures can work around the rule by being more careful in their law making.

This case rested on precedent set down in Zauderer v. Office of Disciplinary Counsel of Supreme Court of Ohio, and does nothing more than upholds that law to a new set of facts. If California could prove that the Zauderer standard applied, its judgement would be given more deference, and therefore a higher likelihood of winning at trial. To meet Zauderer, a statement must be made during “commercial advertising” and require the disclosure of “purely factual and uncontroversial information about the terms under which the services will be available.” If met, the court would uphold the regulations on speech unless they are “unjustified or unduly burdensome.” Here, California could not meet it’s burden to prove that the regulations for licensed providers were justified, nor unlicensed providers were not unduly burdensome.

For licensed providers, the court seemed to struggle to put the holding in plain, simply put terms, and I can’t figure out why. In short, because the regulation required licensed providers to advertise about its competitors services, it was held to not be “purely factual... information about the terms under which services will be available.” Plain and simple, California was forcing licensed providers to advertise their competition. They weren’t being told to advertise that abortions weren’t available at these facilities, or that an abortion is a separate option to consider that this facility doesn’t provide, just that other places could provide everything this facility can and more at lower prices. Imagine if McDonald’s was forced to advertise the going rate for a hamburger at Burger King or some other competitor. It’s clear as day that McDonald’s doesn’t either want to make that speech, or, more importantly, doesn’t have first hand knowledge about that information. It’s not information about their services at all. It’s about someone else’s.

The dissent seemed to miss this point. Much of the dissent believes that it is completely fair to force a business to advertise for its competition. Further, the dissent had a hard time seeing the difference between advertising competing services and related but non-competing services. On this second part, I have more mixed feelings because the service provider is still being forced to make speech it doesn’t necessarily agree with. However, given that this is within the context of commercial speech, where lower protections to speech tend to apply, the additional, indirectly-related advertised services from the state (like child support, subsidized day care, and other post-pregnancy services not provided by the family crisis centers) is a fair distinction. Unlike pregnancy options, these related services weren’t in direct competition with what the family crisis centers covered. The majority is right that the state can’t force business who compete against it to advertise the state’s competing services.

As for the reason both regulations equally failed, it seems that Zauderer must have been decided with abortion in mind. There is a prong in the Zauderer test that demands commercial advertising to be “uncontroversial”. I think the majority is right when it said, without any support, that abortion is controversial. Duh. Because abortion is controversial, it is extremely difficult for the state to regulate commercial advertising about it under Zauderer. I question whether the controversiality of a topic should even be a factor for commercial speech inquiries by the court. However, as this case shows, there is a good reason for it. I’m not sure I’m convinced by the reasoning for its inclusion as a factor, but maybe if there is a targeted attack on something that I strongly believe in politically in the future through commercial advertising regulations, I may find an example where the state uses its increased deference in the area of commercial speech regulation to attack my beliefs unfairly.

Where I most see weakness in the majority and dissent’s arguments relate to the unlicensed providers. Using the example of a hypothetical advertisement that says, “Choose Life,” the majority attacked the regulation as overly burdensome to place the required statement about the facility being unlicensed in text that engulfs the message, especially in LA County where 13 separate languages would need to be used to write out the mandatory disclosure. The majority could have cut out the technical requirements of the statute that make the law unduly burdensome, and left the general requirement to advertise the disclaimer. However, completely overturning the law is also a fair approach given the sheer amount of the law that would have to be removed relative to the whole. I fully disagree with the majority’s belief that the legislature didn’t have enough justification behind the need to tell prospective patients that the facility was unlicensed and not a real medical provider. I couldn’t honestly tell you if my regular doctor or clinic is licensed, I just go there because it’s covered on my insurance. And in the past when I didn’t have insurance and used pay-as-you-go medical services, I definitely had no pre-filtering process from an insurance company to make that inquiry for me. I think the unlicensed facilities regulation actually needed more analysis, and that far too much focus was put on the licensed providers regulation. Zauderer is very clear on the licensed providers part, but when it comes to the unlicensed providers, I’m not sure the court gave the best justification for it’s holding.

As for the dissent, I fully disagree with the idea that you must wait until the state enforces the law against your attempts at compliance with a regulation that appears out of line with the First Amendment. There is loads of precedent referring to the “chilling effects” of such laws, how people fearful of reprisal tailor their speech to what the government wants, slowly chipping away at their freedoms broadly over time. That’s the whole point of being able to challenge speech claims prior to them taking effect or being enforced so that The People’s strongest protection against government is able to defeat an over invasive Leviathan.

The case further holds that professional speech is not yet to be considered a separate category of speech with different protections afforded to it. The court did not hold this definitively, just that it didn’t have enough information to make a formative decision on whether professional speech is special relative to other kinds of speech. So far, it is not. Maybe it will someday.

In short, purely factual disclosures have limits. But as this case shows, the state can’t force a company to provide information about something unrelated to themselves or what they are doing. You can’t tell a company to advertise it’s competitors’ services. And, as it turns out, if the company works in a politically controversial subject, it might be extremely hard for the state to do anything at all with truthful self-disclosures.

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topsolarpanels · 7 years ago

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Charlottesville’s white awakening: ‘We were living in a bubble, ‘ say residents

On Sunday, Ariana Grande helped the Virginia town recover from last months violence which some white residents admitted had been a serious wake-up call

Inside the University of Virginia’s Scott Stadium, a succession of pop superstars were telling local residents that” Love trumps hate” and” You will not dethrone love .” Dave Matthews, Pharrell Williams, Ariana Grande and Justin Timberlake were holding a free concert to assist Charlottesville recover from the violent white supremacist and neo-Nazi protests that rocked the town last month.

But as he smoked a cigarette by the stadium concession stands Sunday evening, Jack( who did not want his last name employed) wasn’t talking about love. He was talking about his referendum. The 25 -year-old, who has lived in Charlottesville most of his life, is a conservative in a liberal town. He said he had voted for Donald Trump, hoping that a political outsider would bring change.

Then white supremacists had marched across his hometown carrying torches and chanting” You will not replace us” and” Jews will not replace us .” They carried guns and wore helmets and shields and fight with anti-fascists in the streets, generating news footage viewed around the world.

As a white man, the kind of American these far-right groups claimed to represent,” I felt ashamed ,” he said. His friends who are not white had been terrified, wondering if they would be safe going outside or walking around. In response, Trump, the president he had supported, repeatedly blamed” both sides” and” many sides” and said there were” very fine people” who marched alongside the neo-Nazis.

Jack said he didn’t know if any mainstream conservatives had marched alongside neo-Nazis on 12 August.” If I insured a Nazi flag come up, I would be out of there ,” he said.

Charlottesville was definitely not the first time Trump had said something that built Jack uncomfortable, and it was was not the first time friends had shared their dreads with him about how their race might construct them vulnerable. When it came to police barbarism, Jack said, he listened, but he also had his own relationship with the police as authority figures, and wanted to believe that most police officer would not simply racially profile people.” This was different ,” he said. The white supremacists’ stance towards other races was absolutely clear.

Whether Trump was a white supremacist himself, he said, he did not know. But along with Trump’s” Rocket Man” jabs at North Korea, the president’s reaction to Charlottesville had convinced him that he would not be voting for Trump again, and that he was required to vet his candidates more carefully in the future.

On Sunday, as tens of thousands of locals filled stadium seats and clustered on the field in front of the stage, the mood was relaxed and upbeat. But, like Jack, some white Charlottesville residents said that that watching fascists march through their streets had been a wake-up call.

” It opened our eyes ,” said Pat Sury, who lives outside Charlottesville.” That it’s here as well as everywhere else. We were living in a bubble .”

Jessica Lavin, Pat Sury and Rosanna Lavin, who live outside Charlottesville. After the white supremacist rally, Lavin and her friends have tried to talk more about race. Photo: Lois Beckett for the Guardian

” I think it get everybody talking a lot more about what’s going on in our community ,” said Rosanna Lavin, 62, sitting with Sury and other friends at a small tailgating party in the parking lot.” We cannot be blind to some of the issues that we really don’t deal with ,” including” alt-right hatred” and” race relations “.

At work, Lavin said, she has tried to talk about race more with her colleagues of coloring.” I think we’re too afraid to approach topics sometimes and get honest reactions ,” she said. But the “bits and pieces” of conversation had not yet created steps forward other than overall supporting.

Conversations about racism” are not the funnest dialogues to have or the easiest ,” but they were happening with more urgency now, said Devin Welch, 33, who works for a solar energy company in Charlottesville, at a different tailgate party. Before the white supremacist protests, local entrepreneurs had already been discussing how to support and money a more diverse situate of start-up founders, ensuring that venture capital funding did not just stay within white social networks. After the protests, it’s not just a priority- “now it’s top,” he said.

Welch said he believed that what Charlottesville had witnessed was the” death gasps of a dying ideology ,” not the growth of something new.

Malcolm Wills, 20, and Fernando Garay, 19, said that protests in Charlottesville had appeared to stimulate people more comfy openly saying racist things, particularly on Facebook. Both young men said they had been shocked to watch acquaintances defend white supremacists online, and that people they knew talked earnestly about their concerns about white people becoming a minority.

Fernando Garay, 19, left, and Malcolm Wills, 20, right. Both said they were shocked to insure people they knew defend white domination online. Photograph: Lois Beckett for the Guardian

The tension and anxiety of the first days after the white supremacists’ protests had faded, Wills said. The two young men said they hoped that if the neo-Nazis came back, the town would choose to let them protest without much reaction, rather than feeding their agenda with attention.

A black fourth-year student at the University of Virginia, who said she did not want to give her name, said she was trying to enjoy her last year of university, and not let what happened define her experience. That wasn’t easy. As a peer counselor to younger students of coloring, she said she has fielded many questions from first-years about whether they should transfer to another school.

She said she advised them to remain.” Sadly, wherever you are in America, you can probably experience these things ,” she said.

Inside the stadium, Susan Bro, the mother of Heather Heyer, the young woman killed when an alleged white supremacist drove a car into a mob of counter-protesters, had received a standing ovation from the audience at the beginning of the concert, and urged listeners to continue her daughter’s legacy by showing up to confront hatred and discrimination.

” Tragically, because Heather stood bravely against combating racism and hatred, she was taken from us ,” Bro told the crowd, asking them to” turn our righteous fury into action .”

The crowd at the concert in Charlottesville. Photo: Zack Wajsgras/ AP

Her daughter” loved humanity with an open heart. That’s what dedicated her the strength and compassion to stand up with her friends against dislike. As Heather said, if you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention .”

Ariana Grande, whose young fans were targeted by a suicide bomber in Manchester in May, leaving 22 people killed and dozens more wounded, struck a similar note between her situates at the concert.

The pop singer, who just finished a world tour, came to Charlottesville to participate in her second benefit concert following an act of terror in the space of simply four months. She had hosted her own benefit, One Love Manchester, in June.

America’s president usually serves as the country’s consoler-in-chief. But Trump, who had branded terrorists” evil losers” after the Manchester attack, had not come to Charlottesville to offer support. So it was the 24 -year-old pop singer who took on that rhetorical role, mixing succour with a reminder of their shared values.

” I want to tell you how proud I am to be part of a generation that is so passionate about making a change ,” she told the crowd.” Keep employing your voices and making this a safer place for each other .”

This article was amended on 26 September 2017 to remove the full name and photo of an interviewee at any such requests.

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